Product Liability: Failure to Warn or Instruct

05 November 2014Last Updated on 12 November 2014Written by Christopher Panio0 Comments

If you have been injured by a defective commercial product, there are typically three areas under which you may be entitled to damages: (1) products that are defectively manufactured, or dissimilar to product specifications and examples of the same product on the market; (2) defective design (having a flaw inherent in the design of the product) – in this case, the same design defect would be present on other examples of the product on the market; and (3) failure to provide adequate warnings or instructions with regard to the use of a product that may prove harmful under certain conditions.

Of course, these factors must cause you injury in order to give way to a personal injury claim.

The third factor of defective products liability claims will be the focus of this blog post. Failure to warn or provide instruction on a given product may be the greyest of areas in defective products law.

A manufacturer and/or distributor of a commercial product must provide a warning about the potential dangers inherent with its use when its design may lead to injury from reasonable use of the product.

Let's say, for instance, a specific brand’s handheld computing device generates such heat after 4 hours of continuous use that it could possibly burn the user or cause a fire if placed on easily combustible material, like newspaper.

Four hours of use for any handheld computer device is not necessarily considered unreasonable use and, therefore, the manufacturer would be required to provide warning or instruction about this aspect of the product. If you were injured using the device and the manufacturer provided no such warning with its purpose, you may have a defective products claim against the manufacturer.

Likewise, should a specific cough syrup formula pose a hazard when used with other common cold drugs, and the manufacturer provided no warning of the hazard, anyone injured as a result of such use may have a defective products injury claim.

Anyone injured by use of a product should consult an experienced defective products attorney. Injuries, treatment, product packaging and the product's design will all factor into your claim and appropriate investigation and documentation is necessary to prove fault.

Panio Law Office attorneys have ample experience negotiating and litigating defective product personal injury claims. We have won our clients millions of dollars in damages. We can help you.

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